Yoga Body Shop JC

Mike Meleski is a 200 Hour Certified Yoga Instructor who did his yoga traing at Yoga Body Institute at Yoga Body Shop.  Mike is a Yoga Instructor at Vibrant Life Force in Horseheads NY.  Mike loves to welcome new yogis with a playful but serious practice, while providing those more experienced with a challenging powerful flow. Mike particularly enjoys the challenge of arm balances and inversions, as well as a powerful hot sweaty push to the limits practice.

Caitlin is a Yoga Alliance RYT 200 hour certified instructor. She first started the practice eight years ago in the beginning of her own personal revolution. After her first few classes, she realized she loved the intense sense of accomplishment and perseverance she found in this practice. Through the first few years, she enjoyed taking classes for the physical aspect. In 2014, after a close loved ones passing, she realized that yoga, if allowed, is so much more than just the physical. She started the process of living from not knowing and being okay with it.

In the Spring of 2017, Caitlin participated in her first 40 Days to Personal Revolution program. The program spring boarded her growth into new and unknown territories. Caitlin started the 200 hour Yoga Body Institute Yoga Teacher Training that fall and graduated in the spring of 2018, a full year after she took that first unknown step towards growth.

Caitlin has a Bachelor’s Degree in French and a Masters Degree in English as a Second Language and teaches French in a local high school. She realized that her passion for teaching was not just cultural and linguistic knowledge but was self-knowledge and understanding.

Through the physical and mental process of yoga, she has come to believe that not only is anything possible but that the only person stopping possibility from happening is herself. Building a strong body will create a strong mind. Her teaching is a mix of pushing her yogis to reveal the possibility in them and allowing them to accept each stage of the process through physical and mental practice.  

Jay started practicing yoga in July 2017. Yoga Body Shop was the first studio he had ever been to, and hot power vinyasa was the first style of yoga he practiced. After living an unhealthy lifestyle as an Over the Road Truck Driver he was looking to improve flexibility, get back into shape and change his overall lifestyle while meeting a like-minded community.   Jay always heard about the mind, body and spirit healing aspects of yoga, and believed it could help him relax and reconnect with himself and the community.   After experiencing Baptiste yoga and hearing the inspiration and positive energy involved, he decided to take the Personal Power Development Program/200hr Teach Training at Yoga Body Shop in October 2017 and Baptiste Level 1 in Augugust 2018, where he learned the ideology of Baptiste and what yoga as a whole was truly about beyond the asana.  He became an instructor at Yoga Body Shop  to inspire others as he was inspired, and to share tools and methods he has learned through yoga. On his off time Jay enjoys spending time with family and friends, being outdoors whether it is traveling, hiking, or going to the beach or a lake. 

Ron is a Baptiste Yoga Certified Teacher and Yoga Alliance RYT 500 Registered Yoga Instructor, and has been teaching yoga for seven years. Being a former bodybuilder and fitness fanatic, Ron is no stranger to getting into and staying in shape.

When he was first introduced to yoga more than seven years ago, he tried to incorporate his athletic and competitive principles to his yoga practice. He soon found out that yoga is not a competition but rather a tool for personal growth and a way to connect deeper with your own mind and body. He has learned that in yoga practice it is important to accept where you are and to appreciate the other teachers and students and be inspired by their abilities. He has learned how to draw upon the energy from the other people in the room to help remove mental blocks and achieve personal breakthroughs. Ron is a trained dental specialist who knows that the way to continue to grow in life is directly proportional to the work put forth. Yoga has become Ron's passion which has given him the desire to share what he is learning with his students.

His classes are a perfect blend of strength and flexibility which helps improve total body strength and shape while maximizing flexibility. Ron believes that the basis of most advanced yoga postures is a strong core. His class flows from one pose to the next virtually from start to finish. As in all yoga styles, the breath will lead you into each posture. Ron's goal is to help his students maximize their potential and to achieve poses that they didn't think they would ever be able to. He utilizes a combination of long holds and flowing sequences which helps students to build strength and improve focus while raising their heart rate. Ron is a perpetual student and is continually improving his own yoga practice. He frequents many yoga studios throughout the US and enjoys bringing back exciting new sequences, transitions and postures. His classes are enjoyed by all! His class prepares students to achieve arm balances and inversions. A strong core is the key. By getting his students to really focus on being present during their practice, they are able to clear their minds of their daily stresses and at the end of each class; students are rewarded with 10 minutes of well-deserved relaxation. Students will leave the class feeling relaxed refreshed and empowered and looking forward to their next yoga experience.

Monica took her first yoga class in 2016 at yoga body shop. From her very first class, she knew she had found something important. After surviving an auto accident in 1990 and undergoing numerous reconstructive surgeries, therapies, and recoveries, she was left with long-term issues including pain and loss of mobility, lower extremity damage and degenerative joints. She discovered that yoga was something she could do with the modifications, and for the first time in decades finally felt like she was getting a powerful workout that was within her abilities and physical limitations. After practicing for a month or so, she became aware of the fact that yoga brought her so much more than amazing physical work out. The integration of mind/body/spirit and the ability to learn physical and mental control and strengthening while learning how to “let go and let be” is something she was able to take off her mat. She began to put this new knowledge into practice in her daily life, her marriage and family, and her Faith. Monica made the decision to enroll in Yoga Body Institute 200 Hour  Yoga Teacher Training and is a recent graduate. She has found new joy in sharing her love of the practice of yoga with others, and she has an intention of spreading the knowledge that yoga is for Every Body, no matter what they have been through or what they think they cannot do.

Claire, 200 RYT certified yoga teacher, believes in the power of yoga and how it can change your life. Claire began her yoga journey 20 years ago with Kundalini Yoga. Although she could not attend many classes, she practiced several times a week with her VHS tape. Eventually, the craziness of life took over, and she left her yoga practice behind. While training for a marathon and needing to stretch out her overworked muscles, she walked into the Yoga Body Shop. She fell in love with the practice, the inquiry, and the meditation. Substituting her dedication to marathon training with yoga, Claire’s yoga practice grew immensely. With overwhelming feelings of gratitude for yoga, she knew she needed to share the peacefulness, the strength, and the mindfulness she gained from being on her yoga mat. Stepping completely out of her comfort zone, she attended and completed Baptiste Level One in August of 2016 in Menla, NY. The experience solidified her desire to teach and in February 2017, she graduated from Yoga Body Institute with her Yoga Alliance’s 200 certification and plans to continue with the Baptiste training. When Claire isn’t on her mat, you will find her deeply involved in her community. Yoga has changed her life and she inspires to help the lives of all the people around her. 

Jennifer is a Certified Baptiste Instructor and a 500 Hour Registered Yoga Teacher with Yoga Alliance. During her transformation with the YBS teacher trainings, she was empowered to also seek out Baptiste training and completed her certification with Baptiste Yoga in September of 2016. While Jennifer loves the challenging practice of power vinyasa flow she is also certified to teach Yin Yoga.

Jennifer practiced yoga on and off for 10 years before finding her home at Yoga Body Shop. While making a shift in her lifestyle, she began her transformation with the teacher training program at YBS in October 2014. Though Jennifer originally started her yoga practice for physical reasons, she soon realized that the real work begins on the inside and that instead of being a work out – it can be a work in. She is inspired daily by the community at Yoga Body Shop and seeks to inspire her students in every class.

Jennifer encourages her students to listen to their body yet explore their edge. Her passion and strength encourage her students to change not only their bodies, but also their minds.

Dave began his yoga journey in in 2004. He had been a martial artist for some 25 years. In early 2002 he suffered a devastating knee injury that took over a year to recover from. His doctor highly advised he not continue martial arts due to the nature of the injury so he never returned to karate training.  Something seemed missing and then in 2004 a yoga teacher (Linda Sambursky,) coaxed him to take a class at the Court Jester health club. He was soon hooked and found that yoga practice offered the physical, mental and spiritual elements that also were found in the martial arts. This began his yoga journey. Over the years that ensued he found himself in and out of the practice and came to a point where he felt he needed to take his commitment and practice to another level. In the fall of 2016 he enrolled in yoga teacher training at Yoga Body Shop and became a 200 YRT certified yoga instructor in February of 2017.  He began teaching at YBS in the late fall of 2017. It is Dave’s hope that he can help others integrate the various aspects of yoga into their lives and help them find their personal power, peace and happiness through the practice of yoga.

Tina’s introduction to yoga began with DVD’s and YouTube videos. She has always believed that physical activity is essential to a healthy mind and body. However, something was always missing, no matter how many miles she ran, or how many hours were spent at the gym. She was curious to see if yoga would be the necessary addition to her workout to feel “complete” and indeed it was. Yoga helped her discover that there’s more to health and fitness than the way you look. Having been a former dancer for 13 years, yoga re-introduced her to her love of dance, reminding her that even the things we did when were young can still be significant to us later in life. The cliché harmony of “mind, body, spirit” began to make sense.

Her introduction to Yoga Body Shop started almost by accident. She applied for a job at the front desk for some extra money, but mostly hoping for free yoga. Her first class there was unlike any other yoga experience she had before. The heat, the sweat, the energy… she absolutely fell in love. Igniting a curiosity in her, she began to explore other types of yoga including yin and aerial. She loves yoga in all its form but found a special passion for aerial. Yoga sparked something inside her, it was the missing link she had been searching for. Wanting to share that others, she enrolled and completed the Yoga Body Institute 200 and 300 Teacher Training program. She has also completed the Level I and II Assist and Align Workshop, and a 40-hour yin yoga teacher training. Her most project as a 500-hour RYT was co-leading a 20-hour aerial teacher training.

You can find Tina practicing on her mat or flying in the aerial silks at Yoga Body Shop. Her free time is mostly spent with books, music, the outdoors, and watching horror movies under a mound of blankets. Always up for an adventure, Tina invites everyone to get on their mat or hang upside down to find their own missing link!

Scott is a Yoga Alliance RYT 500 hour Registered Yoga Instructor, and graduate of the Yoga Body Institute’s 200 Hour and 300 hour programs right here at Yoga Body Shop.  Scott has also completed Baptiste’s Art of Assisting and Being of Power programs.  Scott has been on his mat since 2014, and has developed an intense love for the practice which he shares with his yogis in each class and workshop he teaches.  

His journey began with his first trip to Yoga Body Shop in 2014 to help with an injury he developed in the middle of a weight loss program.  The intensity of the practice drew him in, and later he discovered the mental and emotional benefits which then transformed his whole life.  After working as a teacher’s assistant in the studio for a year, he knew he had to do more to share his love with the entire community, so he enrolled in the 200 hour teacher training at the Yoga Body Institute.

Scott has never looked back.  From the first day of teacher training until today, he has a thirst for learning which drives his passion on and off his mat.  He brings his own brand of rigorous practice with a light tongue to all his classes, which is bound to give your mind, body and soul the workout you didn’t even know you needed.